of rope for a snake. We might believe a
person is ignoring us when they are actu-
ally deaf, or we might see something and
think it causes us pain when actually it
could bring us joy. Wrong perception is
always possible and can bring about fear,
anger, and irritation.
The fifth universal mental formation is
intention, also known as volition. You have
contact with the object, your feeling, and
perception about it, and then you have
your relationship to that object. You decide
whether to possess it or to push it away.
The fifth mental formation is your decision
whether to accept or reject an object.
Transforming Habit Energy
Our habit energy comes from these men-
tal formations. Their seeds form neural
pathways that lead to either suffering or
happiness.
Any seed that manifests in your mind
consciousness returns to your store con-
sciousness stronger than ever. For exam-
ple, when you come in contact with some-
thing that triggers the feeling of anger in
you, your frequent traveling on that neural
pathway turns anger into a habit. But with
the intervention of mindfulness, you can
erase the negative neural pathway and
open up another pathway that leads to
understanding and happiness.
Your depression, fear, jealousy, despair,
and the conflicts within you are all nega-
tive mental formations that contribute
to your habit of running away. don’t be
afraid of them. If they want to come up,
allow them to come up, recognize them,
and embrace them.
We can’t transform habit energy just
with our intelligence and our desire to
do so. We need some insight, and insight
comes from deep looking. The only way to
transform habit energy is to recognize it,
embrace it with mindfulness, and practice
inviting positive seeds to create positive
habit energies.
Mindfulness helps us to recognize the
habit energy of running. When we notice
its presence, we smile to it and we are
free from it. When we recognize the habit
energy of running, it loses its power and
can’t push us to run anymore. Then we
can easily release the tension in our body.
Some habit energies are very difficult
to transform. If you crumple a sheet of
paper, it’s difficult to make it flat again. It
has the habit energy of being crumpled.
We are the same. But happiness can also
be a habit energy. The practice of mind-
fulness allows us to create new, more
functional habit energies.
Suppose that you grimace when you
hear a certain phrase. It’s not because you
want to make a face; it just happens auto-
matically. To replace this old habit energy
with a new one, every time you hear that
phrase you can breathe with awareness.
At first, conscious breathing may require
effort, because it doesn’t yet come natu-
rally. If you continue to practice, how-
ever, conscious breathing will become a
new and positive habit energy.
Non-Thinking and
New Neural Pathways
The practice of non-thinking is the secret
to creating new habits. When thinking
settles in, you lose the immediate experi-
ence of contact and move on to the other
mental formations. You do not have
much chance to be in the here and the
now, to be in touch with what is in your
body and around you. So just become
aware of contact and feelings. In this way
you can be in touch with the elements
of nourishment and healing available in
your body and in the environment, both
physical and mental.
With the intervention of mindfulness,
you can erase a negative neural pathway
and open another pathway that leads to
understanding and happiness.
Suppose that every time you are wor-
ried or anxious or irritated, you reach for
a big piece of cake to cover up that feeling
in you. This is a habit, because a neural
pathway in your brain has been created for
it. But if you allow yourself to stop before
you reach for the cake, you can recognize
both the pattern and the other sensations
happening in your mind and body. You
may notice that you’re not really hungry,
that instead you’re sad or tired. The habit
of breathing and noticing your sadness
will ease that suffering more effectively
than cake, and you will not have the suf-
fering of being overfull and cranky.
With mindfulness and concentration
intervening in the process of perception,
a new neural pathway can be created that
does not lead to suffering. Instead it leads
to understanding, compassion, happiness,
and healing. Our brains have the power of
neuroplasticity; they can change.
Suppose someone says something that
angers you. Your old pathway wants to
say something to punish him. But that
makes you a victim of your habit energy.
Instead, you can stop, accept the anger
and irritation in you, and smile at it. With
mindfulness, you look at the other person
and become aware of the suffering in him.
He may have spoken like that to try to get
relief. He may think that speaking like that
will help him suffer less, although in fact it
will make him suffer more.
With just one or two seconds of look-
ing and seeing the suffering in the other
person, compassion is born. When com-
passion is born, you don’t suffer anymore,
and you may find something to say that
will help him. With practice, we can
always open new neural pathways like this.
When they become a habit, we call it the
habit of happiness.
When you develop the habit of being
happy, then everything you do, like serv-
ing yourself a cup of tea, you do in such a
way that it creates joy and happiness.
We practice mindfulness in order to
get in touch with appropriate attention,
stop our thinking, and enjoy the pleasant
feeling that is possible in the here and the
now. We recognize the many conditions
of happiness that are here, more than
we could possibly imagine. This is pos-
sible. While we are doing so, healing takes
place. We don’t have to make any effort,
because we have the habit of happiness. ♦
SHAMBHALA SUN NoveMBer 2014
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